House burns; neighbors smolder

Denise Brown stands in front of her house at 5 Baysprings Point in the Southbridge neighborhood just off Dean Forest Road. Southside firefighters still don't know what caused the fire in the garage Monday afternoon. (Aldo Nahed/Savannah Morning News)

Friends of the Browns look at the house at 5 Baysprings Point in the Southbridge neighborhood just off Dean Forest Road. Southside firefighters still don't know what caused the fire in the garage Monday afternoon. (Aldo Nahed/Savannah Morning News)

Denise Brown walks through her burned house at 5 Baysprings Point in the Southbridge neighborhood just off Dean Forest Road. Southside firefighters still don't know what caused the fire in the garage Monday afternoon. (Aldo Nahed/Savannah Morning News)

The Browns' house and van at 5 Baysprings Point in the Southbridge neighborhood just off Dean Forest Road burned down Monday afternoon. Southside firefighters still don't know what caused the fire, which started in the garage. (Aldo Nahed/Savannah Morning News)

Denise Brown was resting in her room when she heard popping sounds coming from the garage. She thought it was her dad, doing "dad things."

But Brown was home alone at 5 Baysprings Point in the Southbridge neighborhood just off Dean Forest Road. And a neighbor was knocking on her front door at 2:15 p.m. Monday to warn her that the popping sounds were her garage on fire.

"I was home asleep. I didn't feel well," Brown said Tuesday afternoon, while she walked through the burned remnants of her home. "It smelled weird, so I went downstairs.

"When I opened the garage door, there was smoke. I shut it really quick, grabbed my purse and ran out through the front door."

Scroll to the bottom or click here to see video of Southside Fire Assistant Chief Hugh Futrell talking about extinguishing the fire.

Within five minutes, Brown said, Southside Fire & EMS responders were working the fire. But, she added, she and neighbors were hoping firefighters could have done more to save the house.

Another neighbor said firefighters neglected the house while they put out the burning van extracted from the garage.

"The hose had a kink in it," Brown said of the firefighters' hose. "At one point, it looked like the fire was contained. But because it took so long, it spread."

After Garden City Firefighters arrived five minutes later, Brown said, she started seeing the flames come down.

"But then it was too late," she said.

Southside Fire Assistant Chief Hugh Futrell said the kink in the water hose was not a big hinderance. He said the fire crews worked hard, inside and outside of the house, to put out the flames.

"A lot of time, people can't see all that goes on in the building, and they don't understand there are crews in there doing all they can to pull ceilings," Futrell said. "You want to pull walls and ceilings to get in between the stud construction of the building. We had multiple crews inside the house, ongoing while the car was being removed from the garage."

Futrell said fuel from the van, which was parked in the garage, helped spread fire through the structure's walls.

There was no indication of foul play Tuesday, but the fire is under investigation. Futrell said he wanted to talk to Brown to determine whether she might have noticed a small gas leak before she ran from the house.

"It's going to take a little bit longer to figure this one out," he said.

Fire crews put out the flames within two hours. "Seemed like it took forever to attack the fire in the garage," Brown said. "They just couldn't extinguish it."

Other neighbors agreed.

Pam Barry, a next-door neighbor who called 911 to report the fire, said she drove in from running her errands and saw smoke coming out of the garage. She rushed to the house and knocked on the front door to make sure no one was inside.

"Within minutes, the fire was roaring," Barry said. "This is very sad for the family. It's pretty awful."

Barry said she doesn't feel that Southside Fire did enough.

"There were not enough trucks here putting water on the flames," she said. "If my house is on fire, I want every fire truck in the neighborhood to help."

Homeowners will vent their concern about the response at a neighborhood meeting set for Tuesday. "This raises a lot of questions," Barry said.

Another nearby neighbor, Delana Bonnell, drove past the Browns' house Tuesday to inspect the damage. She said her daughters will sell lemonade this Saturday around noon in the Southbridge neighborhood, and proceeds will go to the Brown family.

"Everybody is very supportive in this neighborhood," Bonnell said. "I told them they are welcome to stay at my house. They only had the clothes on their backs yesterday, so anything will help."